I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results. If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the senate, that approach is no longer appropriate.

[...]

I hope there will be a serious effort to change the senate rule which means that 59 are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of this process.

No, Barney, you foolish little hobbit. I love ya but this is craven bullshit. It is not true that '59 [votes] are not enough to pass major legislation.' False statement. Try this instead: 'Despite the fact that Senate passage requires only a simple majority, 59 votes are not enough to pass any legislation in today's Senate, since the minority party invariably sabotages the process for purely partisan reasons.'

Remember, Barney, three Senate Republicans supported the stimulus bill: Snowe, Collins, and Specter. Specter's a Democrat now and the other two are ostracized within their party. You remember the stimulus, right? Y'know, that bill that Scott Brown claimed was totally useless, a claim refuted by (of all goddamn people) the American Enterprise Institute, not exactly a bastion of nonpartisan thinking? None of the Senate Republicans are likely to vote for health care reform. NONE. If you treat that bloc as if it had any interest in negotiating in good faith at this point, you will be pissed on. Americans overwhelmingly favour universal health care and insurance reform, and when you strip party affiliation from the Senate bill, Americans overwhelmingly favour its provisions. That's not terribly complicated, Barney. We want reform, even this reform-by-half-measures. We want you to do your job.

Pass a health care reform bill, Barney, or spend November explaining why the miserable swine in your party managed to 'waste a year of America's time' on health care reform that couldn't even make it through a 60-vote Senate.